Pandan Chiffon Cake

      If you've never had a taste of chiffon cake, you are so missing out. It's the most lusciously light and airy cake that you could ever eat. You could easily devour a whole cake in one sitting because it's so light. Growing up in an Asian family, most desserts I've been introduced to are flavoured with pandan or coconut or both. It's quintessentially the South East Asian equivalent to Vanilla. Remember my pandan waffles? Hence why my very first chiffon cake I learn to bake is of course a pandan one. And everytime I've baked one, it just disappears so quickly. I've also tried a couple of variations from Pandan but the classic childhood favourite always reigns supreme. I think they call that nostalgia.

      The chiffon cake is something that I have always feared until recently. I have always marvelled at those who are able to bake perfectly straight standing chiffon cakes at home but never thought I could ever master it. The chiffon cake's airy texture comes from whipped egg whites, pretty much similar to that of the souffle. I've been able to churn out some stunning souffles (and also befriended the fickle macaron recipe) so my twitter friend  (and talented photographer) Mr Dexter Kewpie said I should be able to easily master the chiffon. He shared a couple of recipes with me which I sat on for a while because I was too chicken, and feared failure.

      One day I decided to buy myself an angel cake tin (or bundt/tube pan) and some cake flour and thought I would tackle it head on. One of the blogs I was referred to had a lot of details on what you should and should not do and that was all so overwhelming at first but I kept going over the recipe again and again in my head until it was all clear to me. A few tips from Mr Kewpie also helped.

Recipe - Pandan Chiffon Cake

12 - 16 serves (approximately)

Adapted from the blog I Eat I Shoot

Part A

• 150ml coconut cream
• 100ml vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon pandan extract
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt

Part B

• 6 egg yolks
• 75g caster sugar

Part C

• 190g cake flour
• 2 tsp baking powder

Part D

• 9 egg whites
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 75g caster sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celcius. You need a 25cm angel food/straight edged bundt cake pan with a detachable base. DO NOT grease it.
2. Combine all the ingredients of Part A together in a bowl or jug.
3. Beat the egg yolks together with the sugar until it is a pale creamy colour and has tripled in volume, approximately 5 minutes on medium to high speed. (Part B)
4. Gently beat Part A into Part B.
5. Sift ingredients of Part C into the egg yolk mixture and mix through.
6. In another clean bowl with clean beaters, beat the egg whites together with the cream of tartar until foamy. Add all the sugar and beat until firm peaks form. (Part D)
7. Fold one quarter of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture to loosen the batter.
8. Gently fold the rest of the egg white into the cake batter until it is thoroughly mixed through.
9. Pour into the cake tin and bake on the middle shelf for about 45 minutes and then turn off the fan and bake for a further 15 minutes.
10. Take the cake pan out of the oven and invert it over an upside down funnel or narrow necked weighted bottle (e.g wine bottle). Leave it to 'hang' and cool completely before removing from the pan. Run a knife around the middle tube and then around the outside edge of the pan to release the sides and middle of the cake. Push the base out of the pan and invert the cake onto a plate and then run the knife between the base and the cake to release it.
11. Enjoy your chiffon cake with a cup of tea, just don't eat it all in one sitting.

Notes:

• Cake flour is available at Asian grocers however I buy mine from Woolworths - I use the Lighthouse brand which comes in a red and white box. It is a lower protien flour that gives the cake it's light as air texture. The flour already has a raising agent but I still add the additonal baking powder - it gives extra lift to the cake.
• Coconut cream is all I had when I made my first pandan chiffon but I like using it now because it gives a nice rich flavour. You can use coconut milk which is what the original recipe calls for.
• I have not given a time or speed for the beating of the egg yolks and whites as every mixer is different. The best way to judge when it is ready is by looking at it. It also helps if you have previously made meringues and creamed egg yolks.
• If you are using a stand mixer and only have one mixing bowl, transfer the egg yolk mixture to a separate bowl before beating the egg whites, make sure the bowl and beaters are squeaky clean.
• I used a 25cm non stick angel food cake pan with removable base, this recipe yields a very large cake. It is preferable that the cake pan is not non-stick as this may effect the cakes rising ability as the batter does not have a non slippery surface to 'grip' to as it rises. However, after many uses the non stick cake pan will have been conditioned enough that it will provide more grip for the cake batter.
• I don't really recommend baking your chiffon in a regular cake pan. I had trouble with my cake gripping to the bottom of the pan as I lined mine with baking paper so that I could turn the cake out easily. You could bake without the baking paper lining the bottom of the pan but it is a little trickier to remove the cake.
• Your oven may work differently to mine so always monitor your cake. It will need at least the 45 minutes to cook.
• As great as the temptation is to turn the cake out before it is cold, DO NOT touch it before it has completely cooled down. It is also important to invert the cake pan as the cake 'stretches' down as it cools. This helps to stabilise the cake and minimise the chance of it collapsing on you. I've had my fair share of sinking cakes the first few times I made chiffon. The excitement is just so great you want to see what it looks like out of the pan. Still tasty though ;)
• There are many different recipes out there and at the end of the day, sometimes it just comes down to personal preference and experience. I started with this recipe and am so happy with it, I won't try and 'fix what isn't broken'.
• Practice, practice, practice! Every chiffon cake I make gets better and better and better, until I was recently brave enough to let a pastry chef try it and he declared it a 'perfectly baked chiffon cake'. Thanks Simon! ;)

Variations

Earl Grey: Omit the pandan extract and replace the coconut cream with some warm milk. Infuse the milk with 3 earl grey tea bags before added the rest of the ingredients in Part A. Break open an extra earl grey tea bag and mix the contents through the egg yolk mixture after the flour is mixed in.

Ube: Omit the pandan extract and replace the coconut cream with milk. Add 1 cup of ube mash with the milk and mix into the egg yolk mixture before adding in the flour.

*Ube is available from Filipino grocers, it comes cooked and grated in a frozen pack. Defrost before using.*

      Pandan extract is available is most Asian grocers. My Mum buys it by the litre so we always have it at home.

      Ube Macapuno Chiffon Cake for Ryan's mum's birthday. She loved it so much she even dared to say my version of the ube macapuno cake was even better than the traditional Filipino ones. Ube is a purple yam that is popular with Filipino desserts, similar to how taro is popular with other South East Asian countries.

Macapuno is a young coconut fibre (or sport) that comes from a mutilated coconut. I sandwiched layers of ube chiffon cake with ube cream cheese frosting and macapuno strips and then covered the cake in some more ube cream cheese frosting and then decorated it with some dessicated coconut.

      For my uncle's 50th birthday I made a pandan chiffon cake with a luscious coconut butter cream made with coconut cream and covered it in some hazelnut praline I had sitting around leftover from another cake. Topped the cake with some Ferrero Rafaello balls.

      This is the 'perfectly baked' earl grey chiffon which I made for our pop up DESSERTed Dinner Party which we held last month.

      The latest pandan chiffon cake that I baked was even more perfect then perfect. They do say, practice makes perfect! Good luck if you will be attempting a chiffon cake for the first time.

Dan's House, Haymarket

     It's great belonging to a community that revolves around food. We all have the understanding that food does not get touched until everyone has had their turn taking photos. We know the food might be a little cold by the time we eat it but we don't whinge or judge each other because we're all doing the same thing, we're in our natural habitat and it's great, love it! It was a previous dinner with bloggers that led to this event organised by Mr Noodlies (Thang), Heidi (mutual friend of Thang and Diana) and Diana, the owner of Dan's House.

     Dan's House is a new Chinese restaurant which focuses on 'Artistic Conceptual Cuisine'. In so many words, their aim is to modernise Chinese cuisine and inject some flair into it without loosing traditional flavours and techniques. They officially opened this week and a small group of us were invited to a preview lunch a couple of weeks ago.

     The interior is very modern and clean. A lot of silver and gold bling on white, I suppose to signify wealth and good fortune.

      There is an open kitchen where the chefs show off their noodle making skills. They also have a small bar on the second level, and a private room for exclusive hire with karaoke.

     Their signatures are the handmade noodles and authentic peking duck. We were treated to an 8 course tasting menu to try some of the highlight dishes that were to feature on their final menu.

Cold Tofu with Salmon Sashimi mixed with sweet soya sauce and wasabi.

     This dish was a lovely start to lunch. It was light, refreshing and the sauce was a hit amongst the group. Diana tells us that they serve the tofu cold to retain it's texture, it is firm to the bite yet smooth as it dissolves in your mouth and the salmon sashimi and fish roe are a perfect addition combined with the punchy sauce.

Dan's Garden Salad.

     We are told this is no ordinary salad. The vegetables are all hand picked and dressed in a distinctly Asian dressing which includes flavours such as soy and sesame oil. The fried noodle bundle adds some texture to the dish.

Crispy Duck Skin (part of the Peking Duck courses).

     The thin and crispy duck skin is actually served with a side of sugar. We are instructed to dip it in before eating. The sugar is supposed to counteract the richness of the duck skin and draw out it's sweetness.

     You can see I was a little hesitant about eating my piece of duck skin dipped in sugar ;) It was an interesting combo.

Dan's 'Superlean' Peking Duck. Peking duck slices with pancakes and condiments and a duck soup.

     All of the duck is used for this dish, it is seperated into the breast meat and the leg meat, both offering a different taste and texture.

In addition to the pancakes, the Peking duck also comes with some pocket buns.

Something a little different to the traditional pancake.

And the well loved pancake.

     To be honest I prefer a little more meat in my pancakes so this was pretty perfect to me. And the 'superlean' duck was a nice change to regular fatty duck meat. The pancakes were nice and thin and the sauces were nicely balanced.

Fried Scallops in XO sauce.

     Who doesn't love scallops in XO sauce? This dish is nice and fragrant, scallops were a decent size and not too rubbery. We kept going back for the sauce.

Pan fried Wagyu Beef on stone plate with Red Wine and Garlic sauce.

     This dish came out to the table all sizzling and smoky and full of aromas. The sauce was served table side for this dish. The sauce was tasty though I found the beef to be a little tough when I finally got around to eating it. Perhaps it was the waiting time between the chef pouring on the sauce and then all the photo taking after that, that resulted in the beef being a bit overcooked by the time it was eaten. Maybe they can serve it without the stone plate to prevent the beef from overcooking. Loved the bits of caramelised garlic.

Bloggers always love an action shot.

Pan fried Noodle Cake.

     I don't know if I liked this particular dish or not. It was a little savoury, a little sweet but it was quite plain. I did like the texture of the noodles compressed together than pan fried. Perhaps if it was eaten as a side to another dish? Or with a sauce? I think that would have completed it.

Longevity Noodles (originated from Shanxi Province, a typical birthday dish) with Zhajiang Sauce.

     We are told that the longevity noodles are actually made from one single strand of hand made noodle stretching up to 40 metres long. Whoever eats that single strand must have a long extended life ahead of them ;). Unfortunately for us, our noodles come all precut into single portions for ease of eating. The noodle was firm, and the sauce was meaty but still nice and light. It was almost like eating a Chinese spaghetti bolognaise.

'Toffee Apple' dessert.

     Always room for dessert! These are just some apple dumplings deep fried and then coated in toffee. We're instructed to not wait and quickly grab one of the dumplings and dunk it into an ice cold bowl of water to stop the toffee from cooking/hardening any further. 

     Being the bloggers we are, some of us can't help but grab the camera first. This dessert wasn't too heavy so it was easy to go back for more after one or two dumplings. I loved how the crisp toffee covered shell gave way to a soft fluffy interior with a bit of apple. I reckon I could finish off a whole serve of this by myself ;).

Chinese tea and macaron by The Dainty Baker.

     As all Chinese meals, we finish off our meal with some tea. Simon was kind enough to have bought some macarons along for us as a treat.

After lunch we get to watch the chefs in some noodle making action.

They make it look so easy to do.

     Then Thang decided to have a go. His noodle falls way short of the 40 metre mark. I feel sorry for the customer who has just had their life shortened ;)

     I must admit, when I heard 'contemporary Chinese', I was a little skeptical. The words modern, contemporary, and fusion can sometimes be bad news when it comes to food. I did enjoy all the dishes that we got to try though. It's hard to judge the restaurant as a whole since we were there before the official opening but only time will tell. I hope that they don't have too many teething problems, wonder what the rest of Sydney will think of this place. I'm keen to revisit and see them in full swing.

*Angie dined as a guest of Dan's House*

Sun Sun Chinese Kitchen Flemington/Homebush West - and my first live soccer game (10th July '10)

        Going through my backlog I was reminded of a little local restaurant that Ryan and his family have been visiting. I kind of got inspired to pull this blog out of the closet and support a local gem because of a post by fellow blogger mademoiselle délicieuse about the hardships of running a local cafe. 

        This is Sun Sun Chinese Kitchen, a quaint little family run Chinese restaurant in the suburb of Flemington, in Sydney's inner west. According to Ryan, this restaurant has been there forever, as far back as his childhood memories take him. Ryan has told me tales of when his late Grandfather used to take him here as a bit of a treat. Since dating Ryan, I've eaten here only a hand full of times with him, sometimes dining in and other times getting take away. His family hadn't been visiting much either in recent times. It had been a long long time since we last ate here before this particular visit, but the owners had not forgotten about the Romero family.

        It was a Sunday night, and Ryan, Di and I were off to watch a game of soccer. My first ever time watching a live soccer game - it was the Sydney FC vs Everton friendly. Before meeting Phil at the stadium we needed to fill our tummy's with some food. We were a little tight on time so thought we would try and stay local and seeing as the little hub of restaurants in Flemington was only down the road from Ryan we thought 'why not?'. There's not a huge range to choose from, you have either Vietnamese, Chinese, Vietnamese or Chinese or even the possibility of a fusion of the two. We decided on Sun Sun as it had been a while since we last visited.

 

        As soon as we walk in the doors, Ryan is pretty much bombarded with questions from the lady behind the counter. 'Hi! Long time no see! How are you? Where have you been? How are your parents? How is your Grandfather?'. You generally don't get a whole string of questions like that unless the people really know your family. We take a seat at a table and decide over what we want to eat. Some complimentary glasses of tea are poured out for us, which is a lovely touch to a chilly night.

        Sticky Pork Ribs. This is a dish that Ryan and I absolutely love. The ribs are cooked until tender, the sauce is a lovely balance of sticky sweetness and savoury. And there is a nice portion of meat on each rib.

        Tofu stuffed with Pork Mince with Salt and Pepper. Another favourite of ours. This took a little while to come out, but it was worth the wait, even if we had a soccer game to catch. Piping hot, freshly deep fried fluffy puffs of tofu fried to perfection, with a nice filling of mince pork mixed with some diced fungus.

        Some fried rice to go with the mains. Lovely smokiness throughout the rice, a nice even spread of char siu pork, some vegies, egg, and seasoned with a bit of soy.

        I insisted that we had to have some vegetables, we needed some balance to the meal. A plate of stir fried vegetables was ordered., just done simply with a bit of soy and oyster sauce. It was quite a lot of food for 3 people, we ended up having a few pieces of tofu left over which we asked to take away (can't waste good food). Ryan ended up eating them during the soccer game later on.

        The food coming out of this place is always consistently good. It might not be the best ever Chinese restaurant in Sydney, but for a local joint it deserves it's loyal customer base.I havn't been often enough to work my way through the menu but the dishes that I have tried were all decent. And the owners are always super friendly to you. If you're a local I'd suggest you pay them a visit. I'm hoping that they'll be there for another while yet. It would be a sad day if they ever decide to close their doors.

*** Edit - Just had a friend on facebook say that apparantly they have changed owners, but it's still the same cook. I'll have to pass the news on to Ryan and make a visit back soon. Have to make sure that the food is still as good as it was! See, this is what happens when you don't support your locals!***

        Our friends wanted to go watch this soccer game because Sydney FC was playing against Everton. For someone who doesn't really follow sports it ended up being an extremely boring game for me to watch. There was just not enough action on the field for me. Give me an NRL match anyday!! Go the Roosters!! ;) It was a good night none the less, it's the company that matters.

Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake - Blue, Red & White for my team

        Whenever there is a get together of any size or occasion there is an excuse for me to cook/bake something to bring along. It's also a chance to try and make something different that I havn't done before. So when dear Fil organised an NRL grand final viewing at his place I was already trying to think of what I wanted to make.

        At first I was thinking something easy like brownies but I also wanted to make something I was able to include team colours in. Next idea was maybe a plain buttercake but I thought that was boring. I've only had Japanese cheesecake once or twice and have always wanted to try and make it at home. I really like that it's kind of a mix between a cheesecake and a soft sponge cake. The fact that I was able to colour it meant it was a perfect idea for this occasion.

        I remembered that I saw a post on Japanese Cheesecake at Not Quite Nigella so thought I would use it as a reference for my cake. I left out the rare cheesecake part, originally was going to use some raspberry puree and blueberries to make a red and blue layer but then scrapped that idea and just made a plain cheesecake and coloured the batter.

Ingredients:

• 50g butter
• 250g cream cheese
• 100 ml milk
• 60g plain flour
• 20g cornflour
• 150g sugar
• 6 eggs separated
• Pinch of salt

        The butter, cream cheese, and milk are put in a bowl and heated over a saucepan of water on medium low heat until it's all melted and combined.

        Once the cheese mixture has cooled, the egg yolks are added along with the sifted flours.

        In a seperate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until foamy and then beat in the sugar until soft peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the cream cheese and egg mixture. Make sure there are no streaks left. The next part is optional, if you don't require any colouring it is perfectly okay to pour the batter into a greased/lined cake pan. (Approximately 9-10 inch wide).

        So I roughly divided the batter into 3 parts and coloured 2 parts with red and blue (Wilton) gel colouring.

        I could have just 3 layers but then I remember seeing striped (rainbow) cakes around so thought would try my hand at attempting to get stripes in my cake. Starting in the centre I just poured the batter in small portions, alternating between the colours just pouring the next colour straight into the centre of the previous one. The batter was slowly pushed out and gave me the effect above.

        The circles were looking a bit like a target so I decided to run a skewer through the circles to create the webbed effect above. Starting from the outside, I drew a line towards the middle, and went around, cleaning the skewer tip as I went along. I only did this on the surface of the cake as to not mix up the batter underneath.

        Place the cake pan in a water bath of boiling water and bake in a preheated oven at  160 degrees celcius for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

        I had no idea what my cake looked like underneath the surface and was just so eager to cut it up but I had to wait until Sunday night to serve it up. I like how pretty the top turned out.

        So I finally get to cut up my cake! It got some pretty funny reactions from people, asking me what it was. The blue almost looks a little like mould as was noted by some people. Once you had a piece it was hard to stop though. Soft, spongey but slightly creamy with a subtle hint of cheese, it was addictively good! Will have to make it again, and maybe experiment with flavours and toppings.

        Oh and I guess it's quite obvious which team I was rooting for right? So they lost the grand final... they've come a bloody long way from last year though. And loyal supporters don't ditch their teams. Well technically they are Ryan's team... Ryan thinks I need to find another team to support just to make things interesting.